A man of few words who mesmerised all
NEW DELHI: “Kya chal raha hai partner,” asked Atal Bihari Vajpayee, seeking me out from a crowd of journalists at Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan on February 21, 1999. He knew of my stint as HT’s Pakistan correspondent and was keen perhaps to know how his State visit, the last since by an Indian PM, was playing out in that country.
I wasn’t sure until his helicopter landed at Iqbal Park that the PM of “akhand bharat” (read BJP) party would visit the memorial to the Muslim League’s 1940 call for a separate homeland. “It’s a miracle, sir,” I gushed. “If that’s the message to zara tafseel se kahein (say it in some detail). Pakistanis always ask what purpose will be served by talking to people who do not recognise their wajood (existence) as a sovereign nation.”
Now ailing, Vajpayee used to be a man of few words, unless on his feet in Parliament or while holding multitudes in thrall at rallies.
But on the plush lawns of the West Punjab Governor’s residence that evening, the BJP veteran surpassed himself -- as an orator and a statesman. To me, he shone like a Ratna, Bharat Ratna that day itself.
PARADIGM SHIFT
The right wing, anti-India Jamaate-Islami later had the Minar washed with rosewater in what it termed the memorial’s ‘ablution’ after Vajpayee set foot there. That did not erase, however, from popular mind the impression Vajpayee made by his bold acceptance of Pakistan’s reality. In paradigm terms, it was a shift bigger than LK Advani’s endorsement of Jinnah’s ‘secular’ beliefs.
Pakistan betrayed the Lahore peace process in Kargil. But Vajpayee persisted with his hand of friendship, inviting Kargil mastermind Pervez Musharraf to Agra in 2001. It wasn’t for want of his efforts that the summit ended on a lunatic note. The madness flowed from Musharraf ’s megalomania and to some extent the internal BJP contradictions.
What followed was a near war scenario after the December 2001 terrorists attack on Parliament. Two years down the line, a highprofile visit to Pakistan by Indian parliamentarians afforded another opening for peace. Vajpayee seized it with alacrity, making Musharraf commit in January 2004 to nonuse of his country’s territory by terrorists perpetuating violence against India. Mumbai’s 26/11 made a mockery of the Pakistani promise. But history must judge Vajpayee by what he achieved against odds -- at home and in the neighbourhood.
POST-SCRIPT
I once asked a BJP leader to recall one action or policy for which posterity should remember Vajpayee. He agreed wholeheartedly when reminded of his leader’s role in ensuring the secular character of the 1984 vote after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Vajpayee, then BJP president, reached out admirably to the ssikh community, denouncing at public rallies the mayhem in the aftermath of Indira’s murder.
The hugely polarised vote saw the BJP (with two seats) getting reduced to a rump in the Lok Sabha. KC Pant joined it in subsequent years. But when asked -- after winning the New Delhi seat on a Congress ticket in 1984 -- whether he won on a secular vote, he tamely argued: “I received support from all sections…”
The Bharat Ratna conferred on Vajpayee is richly deserved. He’s the BJP’s Nehru -- acceptable to even those who disagree with the ideology of his party or the broader political parivar.